Monday, May 2, 2011

Osamas sisters brain : The Boston connection

When Osama bin Laden was shot dead by Navy SEALs, US operatives had bin Laden family DNA samples ready to match against the corpse.

Where did those samples come from?

According to a report from ABC Channel 5, the DNA came from the body of Osama's sister, who died of cancer in Boston at Mass General and whose brain was then subpoenaed by the FBI for precisely this purpose. We're not sure what goes into subpoenaing human remains, but we'll try to find out.

UPDATE:Sue McGreevey, Mass Gen spokeswoman, says she's received a lot of inquiries and hasn't been able to "turn up any evidence" within the hospital that a bin Laden sister was ever there, or that the FBI ever requested access to any human remains.

Meanwhile, at the FBI Boston field office, Special Agent Greg Comcowich tells us his agency isn't confirming or denying anything about this story.

While it's been reblogged a lot, ABC and its unnamed informant is the only source for this story so far. It looks like the Telegraph added the "subpoena" bit in its reblog; still not sure you can do that with body parts.